SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone: Review

This part of the review is not normal. I am not a big fan of comparing games. I like to think of each game in the context of their unique merits and flaws. But since so many other reviews and in forums discussions have made comparisons with Race Pro, I feel forced to comment.

Race Pro vs. Grid

this comparison is absolutely ridiculous. Sure they are both involve racing cars, but Grid is an unabashed arcade racing game while Race Pro is a simulation. I had to laugh at the story of one member of SimHQ who went to buy Race Pro at his local GameStop. The sales associate tried everything he could to sell him Grid instead, saying it was the better racing simulation. Why? Because the damage model is more extreme (or maybe because it costs 20 bucks more).

Race Pro vs. Forza Motorsport 2

Now here’s a comparison I can understand. FM2 is a great game; I have it and love it, and have logged many hours with it. FM2 outshines Race Pro with a smoother single player and multi-player interface, more game options, better variety in cars and tracks, and a better replay editor, with the ability to take screen shots and upload them to their web site. FM2 also has better tuning and car editing and upgrading. And the Platinum Edition of FM2 at just 20 bucks is an incredible value, containing all tracks and car downloads.

Race Pro has less options, confusing and troublesome interface and weak replay controls (you can’t delete replays in game, you have to delete them from the hard drive). And let’s not forget the damnable locked content. FM2 made you unlock cars, but supplied you with a few unlocked cars in each class for both single player and multiplayer use. Race Pro’s tuning options are more limited then FM2, and has no car customization or upgrading like FM2. But Race Pro shines in the area it was designed to – the physics, which make it fun to drive and feels like a racer. Race Pro surpasses FM2 in entrainment because it is a great no-frills racing simulation, despite not having the flash and polish of FM2. And besides, it has rain and cockpit views!

by "Chunx"

Researching for this review, I read through some console gaming forums that were discussing Race Pro. And I think I hit on something that explains a lot about the console community’s confusion over Race Pro: How they define a "simulation". Those who like Race Pro tend to talk in an impressed and surprised way about how it feels more real than other console simulations they’ve enjoyed in the past.

Huh? Other console sims? You see, for a long time the console media has referred to games like Grid and Forza 2 as driving simulations. By the sim community’s standard that’s a pretty liberal use of the word — kind of like declaring anything with four wheels a race car. A lot of factors affect a simulation’s sensation of realism, but what ultimately separates a racing simulation from an arcade racing game is the fidelity of the physics model. And the simple fact is that no other racing title for the Xbox 360 has even a semi-realistic physics model. Not one. Some might have realistic looking cars and tracks, or detailed visual damage, but that’s not the physics. Race Pro has a realistic physics model, although it’s not ultra-realistic. It isn’t perched on the top rung of hard core realism, but it certainly surpasses the minimum criteria that arcade racers don’t even wish to emulate. So when you see people comparing Forza 2, Grid or DIRT to Race Pro, keep in mind that their definition of a “simulation” is pretty loose. As a result, any comparison of game physics are specious.

Click here to go to top of this page.